The Alabama

• Decision Date: 23 February 1886
• Citation: 26 F. 866
• Parties: THE ALABAMA. [1] v. THE ALABAMA. HICKS and others
• Court: U.S. District Court — Southern District of Alabama

26 F. 866

THE ALABAMA. ^[1]

HICKS and others v. THE ALABAMA.

United States District Court, S.D. Alabama.

February 23, 1886

Overall & Bestor and W. R. Nelson, for libelants.

George M. Duskin, for respondent.

BRUCE J.

On Monday, the nineteenth day of January, 1885, the steam-boat Alabama navigating the waters of the Alabama river, in coming down the river on the south side of the channel opposite the city of Selma, ran against a derrick-boat laying, at the time, on the south side of pier No. 4, that being the south pier of a bridge then in process of construction across the river at that point, by which collision the derrick-boat was sunk, and the property upon the boat, consisting of a steam-engine, derrick, and tools, were lost, and the libelants, whose property was thus destroyed, bring this suit for damages, charging that the collision resulted from the negligent, careless, and unskillful navigating of the steam-boat.

There is some conflict of testimony as to the time when the collision occurred, but the weight of the testimony is that it was about dusk, if not fully dark. At any rate, it was after sun-down, and this suggests the question as to the use of signal or danger lights. There was no light on the derrick-boat or on the pier No. 4 at the time, and indeed there was no light on any of the piers, and there was no person on watch on the derrick-boat at the time of the collision. The hands had left shortly before, and the lights usually exposed had not yet been put up. The question, then arises whether the libelants were required to have and maintain lights upon the derrick-boat, used, as it was at the time, on the construction of pier No. 4. Rule 12, (section 4233 of the Revised Statutes of the United States, c. 5,) under the head of 'Navigation,' provides:

'Coal-boats, trading-boats, produce-boats, canal-boats, oyster-boats, fishing-boats, rafts, or other water-craft navigating any bay, harbor, or river by hand-power, horse-power, sail, or by the current of the river, or which shall be anchored or moored in or near the channel or fairway of any bay, harbor, or river, shall carry one or more good white lights, which shall be placed in such manner as shall be prescribed by the board of supervising inspectors of steam vessels.'

And rule 2 in the same chapter provides:

'The lights mentioned in the following rules, and no others, shall be carried in all weathers, between sunset and sunrise.'

It is claimed that the derrick-boat in question is not within the terms of the statute; that it was not anchored or moored in or near the channel of the river; and that, therefore, there was no obligation upon libelants to use lights as provided in this statute. The evidence shows the base of pier No. 4 is at the low-water mark, so that at a low stage of water, or perhaps even at an ordinary stage of water, a steam-boat could not pass on the south side of pier No. 4. At this time however, the river was high, and there was from 75 to 100 feet width of water between the pier No. 4 and the south bank of the river, so that a boat could pass, and in point of fact the steam-boat Alabama did pass, on that occasion, between pier No. 4 and the south bank of the river, striking her stern, however, against the south side of the pier, and inflicting some damage upon her, though that may have resulted from striking the derrick-boat.

Testimony is cumulated upon the point that it was not usual for steamers navigating the river at that point to pass so far to the south side of the river, and it is clear that the usual course of boats was north of the line pursued by the Alabama at the time in question, and the claim of the libelants is that the derrick-boat was not in or near the channel of the river, and that she was moored at a point where she had no reason to expect a boat, and where the colliding steam-boat had no occasion to go, and therefore lights were not required. The derrick-boat had lines out to the shore on the south bank of the river, but she was moored to the...